118 PANICACE.E. 



throughout from culm to spikelet with short soft hairs, sparingly 

 branched, 60-120 cm. high. Leaf-blades numerous, margins 

 rough, 15-20 cm. long, 2 cm. wide. Panicle erect, often enclosed 

 at the base, 15-25 cm. long, the rays mostly alternate, simple,, 

 rough, the lowest 8 cm. long, the upper shorter. Spikelets mostly 

 in pairs on one side of the rather stout rays (a few on the main 

 axis), the hairy pedicel of one about 2 mm. long, the pedicel of the 

 other shorter, nerves prominent, reticulate toward the apex of the 

 glumes, obovate-oblong, acute, 5-6 mm. long; first glume acute, a 

 little over half the length of the spikelet, 5-7-nerved, second glume 

 and floral glume of the sterile floret equal, the former 7-nerved, the 

 latter 5-nerved, its palea but little shorter ; fertile floret oblong,.. 

 acute, rugose with transverse lines. 

 Texas, Reverchon 1326, Nealley. 

 Texas in dry lands. 



It has been cultivated in the Southern States for fodder, and ha& 

 received many favorable notices. See Vol. I. p. 189, Fig. 84, for a. 

 more extended notice. 



21. P. colonum L. Sp. PL 84 (1753). Oplismenus coloniis-- 

 H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. 1: 108 (1815). 



Annual; erect or geniculate and rooting at the lower nodes^ 

 30-60 cm. high. Leaf -blades linear, acuminate, glabrous or rough, 

 8-12 cm. long, 4-6 mm. wide. Spikes 7-10, 1-2 cm. distant, 

 borne on the main axis, simple, 1-sided, 1.5-2.5 mm. long. Spike- 

 lets crowded on the rachis 2-3 together, subsessile in alternate rows 

 along two sides of a rough, triquetrous rachis, flat on one side, 

 scabrous-pubescent, oblong, acute, 3 mm. long, first glume broad- 

 triangular, half as long as the spikelet, mucronate, 3-nerved, second 

 concave, broad-oval, acute, 5-7-nerved, third shorter, hyaline,, 

 fourth 7-nerved; floral glume and palea shorter, smooth, ob- 

 tuse. 



Texas, U. S. Dept. Agricul. 55 from Buckley; Mexico, Palmer 

 193; Gulf of California, Palmer 51. 



Alabama to Florida, Texas, Arizona, Mexico. Also found in 

 the West Indies, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Arabia, Australia. 



Var. zoxALE (Guss.) L. II. Dewey, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 



